


No One Goes Grocery Shopping Undisturbed

by MelodiRead



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (at the beginning he's not transitioned yet but just bear with me), (not triggered by violence), (so far) - Freeform, (these tags are not in order), Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Bit of Sibling Angst, British Creativitwins, Bullying, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Uses Different Names, Deceit Sanders Has a Different Name, Everyone Seems to Forget That, Family Issues, First Meetings, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Remus Sanders, Gradual Discovery of Powers, How Do I Tag, Invasion of Privacy, Korean Patton, Latino Virgil, Logan is a Smart Boi, Mentions of Death, Mind Reading, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Roman Sanders, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, The Government (as an entity), There is 1 (One) Fight, Thomas Sanders has Anxiety, Thomas and Virgil formed an Anxiety Club(tm), Trans Male Character, Trans Male Deceit Sanders, a moment of unconsciousness, african american logan, irregular updates, one mugging, someone gets knocked unconscious in the Fight, superpower au, switching POVs, yes that's plural
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 7,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23344972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodiRead/pseuds/MelodiRead
Summary: Magic seems a bit far-fetched for this world, doesn't it?Yet seven children will later find themselves manipulating it like it's nothing.The story of their discovery and how it changes their lives.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil & Deceit | Janus & Logic | Logan & Thomas Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, No Romantic Relationship(s), Platonic DLAMPRT, Roman & Remus & Patton
Comments: 20
Kudos: 85





	1. Start Here

**Author's Note:**

> I started this story thinking, "What about a superpower AU where no one's a hero?" That's what this is.  
> So far.  
> There is every chance that will change later (I'm looking at Roman) and I will edit this accordingly.
> 
> Most of the chapter titles will be songs. A few will not be. I'll be sure to credit songwriters in the notes.
> 
> This chapter's title is from a Maddie & Tae album.

Six spirits swept down upon the state. Their previous wielders had died, and it was time to choose the next.

The first spirit, holding the mental powers, came across a home in the center of a busy city. It noticed a young African-American boy with hands covered in vitiligo, who already possessed a high level of intelligence. 

That night, it entered the boy’s mind, already beginning to work its magic.

The second spirit, controlling perception, found a large Latino home in the poor area of a different city. One boy, maybe seven years old, was hiding in his room. The spirit knew its powers would help him.

That night, it would join with him, protecting him.

The third spirit, with powers of sensing motivation, settled in the same city, in a richer area; it had its eye on a young girl who never felt quite right. It knew it would be needed later in her life.

That night, it seeped into her dreams, waiting for the right time.

The fourth spirit, which had empathic powers, saw a Korean home a county or so away from the others so far. The youngest son of that family, maybe eight years old, was a kind soul who always helped others; its power would be well put to use here. 

That night, it became a part of the boy, already silently allowing its use.

The fifth spirit, with its enhancement power, knew it had to find a responsible owner who wouldn’t abuse its power. It found that owner in a home not far from the third, in a boy who hadn’t a malicious bone in his body.

That night, it settled into its new home, hiding and waiting for the first encounter.

The sixth spirit, with elemental powers and weapon abilities, came upon a house with a sleeping pair of British twin boys. It looked into itself, debating for a few minutes, before splitting itself in two and ensuring that the divide was even.

That night, the newly split spirits entered the boys, who merely turned over in their sleep and rolled a bit closer to each other.


	2. Weak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Dana (Dee pre-transition).
> 
> She doesn't know why she's never felt quite right, but what she does know is that feeling comfortable gets her hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are mentions of bullies and Dana does end up knocked to the floor at one point; mentions of death and broken promises.
> 
> Chapter title from AJR.

Dana was uncomfortable with herself.

She wasn’t entirely sure why, but “she” just didn’t feel right. However, seeing as she was in seventh grade, she didn’t exactly have the means to explore these feelings freely. So it was expressed in small rebellions against her parents.

She’d cut her hair above her shoulders and refuse to grow it out past that.

She’d refuse to wear skirts and dresses, choosing to instead wear hoodies whenever possible.

One of her close friends, who’d been let in on these feelings, would only refer to her as Dee, which helped sometimes.

Unfortunately, the bullies of the school decided that this was enough to merit persecuting her.

~~~

Dana winced as she hit the floor. _It’s been about five minutes, so it’s almost over._ She closed her eyes to get a respite from the beating . . .

And immediately opened them again. _What was that?!_

When she worked up the courage to close her eyes again (the bullies were talking amongst themselves nearby), she saw what she thought she had the first time. Images, pictures, of something else . . . of someone else’s life. It looked like one of the bullies.

Intrigued, she listened to the voices. ( _“I’ll be nice, Momma.”_ ) She watched the images flash by (a casket, a burial, tears). It was at this point she felt like she was intruding. 

Desperately, in an attempt to stop peering into the poor boy’s life, she mentally flung the images back at him. As if responding to her pleas, the memories dissipated.

When Dana opened her eyes again, the boy she’d seen in her memories was sobbing his eyes out, barely letting out a story about . . .

About the exact things she had seen.

She thought about what had happened for a few good moments as the bullies looked for a quieter place to console their leader. _Did I do that? Did I see his memories—specifically the ones telling me why he bullied? Why?_

_Maybe I could use this to my advantage._

_~~~_

Needless to say, that was the end of the bullying.

Although the boy’s father sued for emotional damages, which she never humored with a response.


	3. breathin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Thomas, the new kid at school. 
> 
> He's just looking for someone to show him around, but he ends up with a lot more than that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Thomas does black out/faint for a few moments on either side of the page split.
> 
> Song by Ariana Grande, cover by Thomas Sanders

Thomas stepped into his new school on the first day of seventh grade. _Why did the school zones have to change this summer? I don’t know anyone here._

He wandered through the hallways a while (he’d gotten there much too early) until he came across an eighth-grade girl leaning against a wall of lockers that was otherwise devoid of people. _She looks like she knows how things work around here . . ._

He walked up to say hi, pausing for a moment as the girl held up a hand and turned off the music she’d had playing in her earbuds.

“Hello, I’m—” Thomas didn’t get any further into his sentence before feeling a strange dizziness come over him. He sat down, knowing he was probably about to pass out (although having no clue why), and proceeded to lose consciousness.

~~~

The girl’s wide green eyes were the first thing Thomas saw when he opened his own brown ones.

“Are you okay?” she asked worriedly, helping him up.

“Umm, yeah, I think so,” he replied.

She sighed in relief. “Okay, that’s good. Now, a more important question, what can you do?”

Thomas frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”

The other student gave him a long look. “When we bumped into each other, there was . . . something. I can’t exactly place it, but—”

“Are you trying to hit on me?” Thomas interrupted. “Because I’m gay and I don’t like you that way.”

She laughed. “No, but I think you might have a power.”

That stopped Thomas dead in his tracks. “Wait. You mean, like, superpowers? Laser eyes, flight, that sort of thing? You think I can do that?” He paused. “Can you?”

“No,” she said, “I can see certain memories, usually the ones pertaining to why people do what they do—their motivations.”

“Then what makes you think I have a power?” asked Thomas quietly. “Nothing strange has ever happened around me before.”

The girl gave him a thoughtful look before muttering to herself, “Maybe it was triggered by meeting me?” She then turned back to Thomas and said, “When you ran into me, I saw something completely outside my normal range. Correct me if I’m wrong, but your third birthday has no relevance to why you are who you are now.”

“So, are you saying that I . . . boosted your power somehow?” Thomas asked skeptically.

“I don’t have any other explanations,” she replied.

Just then, the bell rang.

“Looks like we’ve got to get to class,” she said. “The name’s Dana, by the way.” She paused before seeming to come to a decision. “Call me Dee.”

Thomas smiled. “My name’s Thomas. Can we talk more later?”

“Sure,” Dee replied. “Just not at lunch. I want to introduce you to my best friend. He’s in your year, I think.”

“Sounds cool!” Thomas said. “See you then.”

“See you then,” Dee echoed.


	4. Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Virgil, Dana's best friend.
> 
> He wasn't expecting to make a new friend today, but that's not the only surprise he gets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: brief social anxiety, a knife, that mugging I mentioned in the tags? Yeah, that's here.  
> No one gets hurt, don't worry.
> 
> I feel like its worth noting that since I don't have a beta, these chapters are typed out less that 24 hours before I post them. The cafeteria scene was added while I was typing for a better introduction to Virgil, so it didn't hit me until halfway through that maybe this chapter should've been called 'breathin'.
> 
> Anyway, chapter title this go round is from Halsey.

Virgil looked up as Dee walked over to their normal table with another student in tow.

“Who’s this?” he asked, curious and a bit suspicious. _I’ve never seen him around before . . ._

Dee grinned. “This kid’s name is Thomas; he’s in your year. I was minding my own business in the hallway this morning and he passed out in front of me! Thankfully, he’s okay—and before you ask, no he doesn’t have a concussion, I know what that looks like—but he’s new and needed help finding his way around anyways. So I offered to let him sit with us so that he’s not sitting alone,” she said. _Like we used to,_ she didn’t add. 

Virgil nodded, understanding. “Well then, hey Thomas. The name’s Virgil.”

Thomas stuttered nervously for a moment before replying, “H-hey Virgil. T-thanks for introducing us, D-dee.” He smiled.

Virgil frowned thoughtfully at the name. “If Dee trusts you enough to let you call her that, then you can call me Virge or V. If you want to, that is.”

Thomas turned to him. “O-oh, um, thanks f-for trusting me, I g-guess.” The poor boy was still shaking.

Virgil looked at him for a long moment before starting to count in his familiar breathing pattern. “One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” Thomas looked at him, briefly confused, before Dee turned to Virgil.

“V, you have to stop assuming everyone knows the breathing exercises.” Virgil rolled his eyes, still counting just loud enough for Thomas to hear.

Dee turned to Thomas, sighing. “Breath with Virge’s counting. In for four counts, hold for seven counts, out for eight counts.” She demonstrated by breathing along for a few sets until Thomas joined in.

A few dozen sets later, Thomas was much calmer. “That-that actually really helped. How did you know?” he asked Virgil.

Virgil just gave him a small smile. “Easy. I, myself, have anxiety.”

Thomas stared. “But you look and act so confidently!”

Virgil laughed a bit at that. “Today is a good day. On average days I would’ve been worse than you when you walked up. You don’t want to see me on a bad day.” He stopped as a text notification appeared on his phone.

Opening the message, he frowned slightly. _That’s odd . . . he’s never needed me to do that before . . . but then, I am thirteen now._ Closing the app, he looked up.

“My dad needs me to pick up groceries from the store on my way home. Do either of you want to come with?”

Dee grimaced. “I’ve got tryouts for the cheerleading team. I _wish_ I could skip those, but my mom would kill me if I did.”

Thomas tilted his head thoughtfully. “I think I’m free,” he said slowly. “My dad doesn’t get home until a while after I do most days.”

Virgil nodded. “I’ll meet you just outside the front door after the bell?”

Thomas nodded back. “Sounds like a plan.”

~~~

Virgil hadn’t been planning on getting mugged today.

He’d planned to walk to the store with Thomas, grab what he needed, and be back home before five o’clock. Simple, easy, Thomas even lived near him so there wouldn’t be anyone getting lost.

But no. Instead, as they walked down an alleyway that Thomas insisted was a shortcut (“I’ve been here before, it’s just down this way”), a man walked up behind them and started threatening them.

Thomas, in all his (stupidity? Bravery? Virgil didn’t know what to call it), had struck up a conversation with the man, acting oblivious as to the mugger’s true intentions. He’d even acted like he could handle this guy on his own, asking Virgil to make a run for it when their eyes met.

Then the man pulled out a knife.

Virgil and Thomas looked each other in the eyes before Virgil ran at the man, punched him in the face, and ran.

Thankfully, the man followed him instead of staying and hurting Thomas. Unfortunately, Virgil had lost all sense of direction within the past few moments and was running the wrong way. He cast the occasional glance back at the mugger following him, which gave him the strength to keep running.

The man had nearly caught up to him, and Virgil was panicking badly. Just as the man was about to reach him, Virgil felt a faint _whoosh,_ and all of a sudden, the man stopped, confused. Virgil took the time to hide before looking down at himself.

Or, at least, he looked down at where his body should have been. Instead, all Virgil could see was his shadow. _Am I invisible right now? How?_ He then realized his shadow was in the man’s field of vision.

Frantically, not expecting anything to happen but unable to do anything else, Virgil made a shooing motion at his shadow . . . _and it disappeared._

He looked back up to see the man advancing on him, looking towards the last place he’d been visible. All of a sudden, a swarm of bees flew out of nowhere and attacked the man. That set him running in the opposite direction from both Virgil and Thomas.

When he returned to Thomas, the other boy was standing exactly where he had been, staring at . . . a patch of flowers? _We’re in the middle of downtown!_

Virgil crouched down by the flowers, seeing Thomas motionless, and began waving his hand through the flowers. They were illusions.

 _Well,_ Virgil thought, _that explains the bees._ He took another look at Thomas.

“Did you know about this?” he asked quietly, not wanting to startle the boy. “Because you just summoned illusions and I turned invisible, and I would really like to know that there’s someone who can explain all of this.”

Thomas took a deep breath. “I think,” he said, “we need to talk to Dee at lunch tomorrow. Privately.”


	5. Freaks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio meet up and talk about the events of the previous day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: description of a mugging (nothing too graphic, like last chapter), knife mention, sarcasm if that bothers anyone.
> 
> Chapter title from Jordan Clark.
> 
> (Yes I know there are other songs called Freaks. Listen to this one. It's good. I promise.)

Dana glanced at her phone once more. _Where are they?_

Virgil had sent her a frantic string of texts last night, several of which were incoherent (she had her suspicions that he was shaking when he typed them), but she’d managed to gather that something had happened related to Thomas’s powers . . . and maybe some of Virgil’s own? He hadn’t been very clear.

 _Then again,_ she reflected, _it’s probably better to not leave any hard copies of conversations about powers laying around where any old hacker can get them._ She giggled to herself—she was fourteen and worried about hackers.

“What’re you laughing at?” Virgil asked as he walked up, Thomas in tow. The two still looked somewhat shaken, though no doubt better than they had the night prior.

“Nothing important.” Dee smiled at them. “So, what _exactly_ happened yesterday afternoon? V tried to explain, but I wasn’t sure what exactly he was trying to say at some points.”

Thomas took a deep breath. “So, as planned, we headed to the store after school to grab what my dad wanted me to get, right?”

“Why are you asking me? I wasn’t there,” Dee joked.

“Fair. So on the way, I got confused with directions and thought that a nearby alleyway was a shortcut, so Virge followed me down it. Then we got mugged.” Thomas shrugged. “Not the nicest first day of school I’ve ever had.”

“You two WHAT??!” she exclaimed, caught a bit off guard. “Are either of you hurt? Is the other guy hurt? Did you actually get anything stolen from you? How did you get away?”

V drew her attention with a wave of his hand. “When the guy pulled out a knife—”

“He did WHAT—”

“Thomas told me to run, which I did, but the dude chased me instead of staying with Thomas like he thought he would. Then, just as he was about to catch me, _I turned invisible._ ”

“Huh,” Dee remarked, “One of us has what is considered a traditional hero power.”

“Yeah,” said Virgil, “but my shadow still appeared at first. I just kinda made a shooing motion at it and it vanished.”

Thomas jumped in. “At this point, I was really concerned for Virge. I knew how he’d probably react to an armed man coming after him, given that we’re both members of the Anxiety Club™. So I called after the man, gesturing with my arms for some reason, and then the image of a swarm of bees flew after him.”

Dee stopped to process. “So you can create illusions as well as enhance powers, V can turn invisible and control shadows, and I can view motivations. We’re becoming quite the team.”

“I guess so,” Virgil agreed.

“You know we can’t tell anyone else about this, right?” Dee said.

“Well, there goes my plan to scream it to the world,” V snarked as he made shadow puppets discreetly on the wall of the cafeteria.

Thomas shook his head. “Sarcasm won’t help anything, V.” He sighed and looked back at Dee. “Do you have any ideas?”

Dee thought a moment. “Maybe once we graduate high school I can figure something out, but there’s nothing we can do right now to ‘improve the world’ or anything. But if we want to find others like us,” here she turned to Thomas, “maybe you can do a kind of patrol. Your powers manifested when you met me; maybe it will be the same for any others out there.”

Thomas smiled. “Sounds like something I’d be fine with.” 

The bell rang, preventing him from saying anything else on the matter.

“Right now, we need to go to class. See you later?” Dee asked the others.

They smiled at her and both nodded, and all three parted ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, don't hurt me for saying this.
> 
> I'm not going to cover the time encompassing Dee's transition with any of these three.
> 
> I've only seen and read other people's depictions of this process, and I don't want to offend anyone by showing it wrong.
> 
> By the next time we see him, he/him pronouns and a binder will be used, rest assured. His chosen name is (edit: Janus), though Virgil and Thomas still call him Dee. 
> 
> There's three chapters and five years until then, though, so sit tight as (most of) the rest of the cast is introduced.


	6. Genius

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Logan, the young genius.
> 
> Taking a college entrance exam was supposed to be his next step, so why was everyone in the room staying at him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: testing, I think that's it.
> 
> So I've never taken a college entrance exam. I don't even know if any U.S. universities have those. I made up the entirety of the testing process depicted here; please feel free to correct me if this is traditionally done differently, but I probably won't change the story mainly because the way I wrote it is the way I think it flows best.
> 
> Title by LSD -- I believe that's short for Labrinth, Sia, Diplo

Logan stepped into the examination room, taking a deep breath. _There is nothing to be concerned about. I have prepared thoroughly and will perform well._ He was by far the youngest individual in the room, though that was to be expected.

 _I suppose it is not exactly common to take a college entrance exam at the age of fifteen,_ he reasoned. 

Logan had always been a rather intelligent child; from the age of six he had been years ahead of his classmates in knowledge. His parents, realizing how unstimulated he was in the traditional classroom setting, opted to homeschool him instead for all of his childhood so far. Thankfully, both had college degrees themselves, and in vastly different subjects, so they were able to provide him with a more than adequate education.

It had been Logan’s own decision to apply to a university this year, in the interest of embarking on a career path that would make good use of his intelligence. He didn’t doubt for a moment that he would pass, but there was no alternative way to get in.

The test was distributed and Logan got to work, ignoring the occasional stares directed at the single dark-skinned teenager in the room.

~~~

Once Logan finished the exam, he took a moment to stretch and look around. Oddly, he appeared to be the first one who had completed it. _Perhaps I overstudied?_ he considered for a moment. The test, in and of itself, had been relatively simple, with few to no difficult questions. In fact, Logan didn’t remember pausing during the entire time he was completing the exam.

A testing monitor came by, pausing as she approached Logan’s table. “Would you mind if I take that?” the woman asked quietly, seemingly in awe that he was already finished.

Logan nodded before slipping back into his own thoughts (though not quite far enough that he didn’t notice the gaping looks from all across the testing room). _Clearly that was_ _out of the ordinary._ _Is there something unusual about my intelligence?_

His suspicions were confirmed when it was an hour later that the next potential student turned in their test. _Ten minutes, even fifteen could have been normal. An hour, on the other hand, could not._ He thought about his childhood, specifically the time around when he had been pulled from the school system. _I had never seemed to be normal, had I?_

He spent some time searching his memories, before remembering something that nearly made him cry out loud (he stopped, thankfully, as several students were still testing). _Was I reading a_ college textbook _at the age of seven? There is no chance that is accurate._

Regardless of whether the memory was true or false, the fact remained that he had completed a college entrance exam in significantly less than an hour. _Something_ was going on, that was for sure. Now, if only he could figure out what it was . . .

~~~

The testing proctor reentered the room approximately two hours following the end of the exam. She walked around quietly, passing each student a printout explaining their score. Giving Logan his paper, she sent him a look of awe similar to that of the monitor earlier.

Logan didn’t understand why until he took the paper from her and read it over. _A perfect score?_

He had been wanting to attend this school, but word of this would certainly get around; he had an instinct that if this information ended up in the hands of the wrong person, ~~or worse, the government,~~ it would not end well for him.


	7. Dollhouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Roman and Re, a pair of twins with family issues.
> 
> They've fought before, but never quite like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: weapon mentions, screaming, a fight, someone gets knocked unconscious
> 
> Title from Melanie Martinez.

Roman and Re may have been twins, but they didn’t really get along. The two seventeen-year-olds were as opposite as night and day. They had used to be best friends, but they’d grown more distant over the years. It was just now beginning to come to a head.

This is why they could be seen on the street on this particular night, arguing heatedly, by a neighbor who could have sworn that there were auras rising from the two.

“I told you, they don’t like me! They’ve never liked me! They’ve always loved you! To them, you’re an ice cream sundae and I’m a tornado—you’re the sweetest thing in existence and I tear people to pieces without trying!”

“Oh, yeah, like you can’t see the suffocating expectations they’ve placed on me! Do you have any idea how long it takes to build up the image of their ‘perfect child’, to create a wall between myself and anything I truly enjoy so they can’t see it, to _hide away who I truly am_ just so they’re happy?! You can do whatever you want! They don’t even care!!”

“As if that’s much better! It’d just be another nail in my coffin! I’m already the _gross_ one, the _creepy_ one, the _unpredictable_ one; why not add reckless? Impulsive? _Destructive?!_ It’s not like I’ll ever amount to anything!”

“At least you have freedom! If they could get away with it, I’m sure I’d be on a leash through my thirties! I can hardly explore my own interests with them in my way!!”

“Don’t give me that _crap!!_ You say you have nothing for yourself, but you _pretend!_ You fake joining the sports teams and you join your little theater troupe, being _happy_ all the time!! You leave me with nothing to do but act out! Hope that I get noticed! Because my sibling gets all the glory, and I’m just a screwup!! _I wish I wasn’t your brother!!”_

The neighbor watched the faint auras from earlier condense around the siblings, glowing brighter. At one point, she had to look away; the light was nearly blinding.

As the light faded, she gazed in horror as Roman raised a sword and shield to meet the morning star Rex was holding. She had no clue where the weapons came from, but this would clearly not end well.

Rex then seemed to be . . . growing? The earth underneath him rose as a streetlight shone on his purple wristband. Based on his clenched fist, he was in fact the one doing this.

Roman snarled as they saw what Rex was doing. Raising their own fist in retaliation, they summoned a mini tornado to tear up the growing mound.

Rex feigned a swing of his mace at Roman before splashing some water in their eyes instead. Roman barely managed to resummon a shield to hold aloft as Rex brought his morning star down. The impact drove Roman’s shield into their head, knocking them unconscious.

Rex looked down at his sibling laying on the ground, his anger evaporating to be replaced with horror. Glancing around and not seeing anyone, he ran.

The neighbor decided to keep quiet about what she had seen (no one would believe her anyways), but she did take the time to move Roman back to their bed.

Roman woke up the next morning in their own bed. Flashes of the night before played in their head, and they tried to convince themselves it had been a dream.

Then they snapped their fingers as a sort of test, and a small flame appeared in their palm.

_It wasn’t a dream. Re’s gone. . ._

Roman curled up in their bed and started sobbing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, where I put Re it wasn't a typo. As stated in the tags, they are genderfluid.
> 
> Re is the name other characters will use when they don't know what gender Re currently identifies as, and most default to they/them pronouns, which Re is fine with.
> 
> She/Her: Renee, black wristband  
> He/Him: Rex, purple wristband  
> They/Them: Remus, green wristband
> 
> Remus is the name they were given at birth, but they assigned that name to when they use they/them pronouns to show a connection to Roman; same with the color. Roman is perfectly aware of this.
> 
> In better days, the two get along fine. This fight had been building for a while, though.
> 
> Thought I should get that out of the way in case I never cover it in the actual story.


	8. Voices in My Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan thought today would be a good day to run some errands without getting caught.
> 
> He's wrong . . . but not in the way he expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the only thing in this one that could be considered a warning is the government attempting to track someone down, so . . . yeah.
> 
> Title from Be More Chill

Logan cautiously stepped out of his apartment. In the three years since the fateful college entrance exam, he had ‘struck out on his own’ and rented a place for himself under a fake name. He had seen the posts online and all the emails, the other students who took the test having spread the word.

Thankfully, he had managed to evade most forms of detection by the government in the renting process. Whatever had caused it, his intelligence was useful for predicting what an individual would do next. He had already calculated the chances of being caught today, and it was rather low, being a Tuesday over three years since the testing debacle. Therefore, today should have been a good day to go grocery shopping.

Key phrase: _should have been._

~~~

Logan made it halfway to the store before he bumped into a young man on the street. They both picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and kept walking, but Logan began to realize that what he was hearing in his mind wasn’t simply his own thoughts.

_. . . has me patrolling yet again. Still no sign of anyone else. I must’ve ran into everyone in the city by now, and not a single person’s had a reaction. I’m starting to doubt that anyone else has powers. Maybe it’s . . . _

Logan stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the man strolling down the sidewalk. _What did I just hear?_ Those certainly were not his own thoughts; the grammar was atrocious. _So then . . . were they his?_ Deciding there was only one way to decide for sure, he began walking at a much faster pace to catch up to the man.

The young man saw Logan coming and stopped, allowing him to slow his pace significantly.

“Hello,” he said once Logan was within hearing range. “My name’s Thomas, he/him pronouns. You?”

Logan stopped walking, having reached Thomas. “Logan. He/him pronouns as well. I believe I heard mention of,” here he dropped the volume at which he was speaking, “powers?”

Thomas paused, allowing Logan to hear what was going through his mind. _I didn’t say anything about powers, did I? I haven’t even spoken since I left my house! So does that mean . . ._ Thomas sighed and drew a hand down his face. _A mind reader. That’s it. I’m never doubting Dee again._

Logan tilted his head. “Who is this ‘Dee’ you keep referring to?”

Thomas jumped a bit, seemingly startled by Logan’s voice. “Oh, um, he’s kind of the leader of our group. Do you want to come with me somewhere more private where we can talk?”

Logan thought it over, considering. _He seems genuine . . . his thoughts line up with his words . . . he appears trustworthy._ “Alright,” he said, before sighing, “’Take me to your leader.’”


	9. Where'd You Go?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas didn't think he'd find another powered person on the street.
> 
> Now that he has, it's time to see what he can do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: There shouldn't be any; let me know if I need to tag anything, but this chapter's relatively calm.
> 
> This chapter's title, as well as Chapter Ten's title, comes from the Cotton-Eyed Joe.

Thomas led the other man (Logan, did he say his name was?) downtown to the building he and the others had turned into their “base”. As soon as the doors shut behind them, Thomas took a moment to give Logan a brief description of Janus and Virgil, as well as all of their abilities. Logan seemed surprised for a minute that there were only three of them, but he didn’t question it, thankfully.

“Jay discovered his powers five years ago,” Thomas explained, “and he was the one to explain it to me and Virgil the next year when we ‘unlocked’ our own.” 

He turned to face Logan. “Do you know what you can do?”

Logan frowned. “I assume you mean in a ‘supernatural powers’ sense? I believe I have above average intelligence—did you hear of the teenager who received a perfect score on a college entrance exam three years ago?”

Thomas nodded, letting Logan continue but silently being in awe.

“As I can tell you have guessed, that was me. I discovered today that I can read minds when we came into contact with one another, but I have only heard yours so far and therefore cannot be sure of how powerful I am or how far my range is.” Logan paused to draw in a quick breath. “Based on your description of your power, you are able to enhance that of others?”

Thomas smiled. “You want me to enhance your power to see how far it goes? I can do that.”

Logan nodded. “Please.”

Thomas took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Reaching out mentally, he saw the bright, glowing orb that represented Logan’s powers. It was already fairly large, but Thomas still took the time to remove some of his own and add it to Logan’s.

A flash of light from the physical plane made Thomas open his eyes.

Logan was gone, and every object in the room not bolted to the floor was floating.

Grumbling a bit, Thomas called out, “Are you invisible, Logan?”

No response. 

“Virgil, do you have him?” Thomas yelled fruitlessly.

That one was a bit of a stretch anyways.

_So where the heck is he?_

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Logan opened his eyes to find himself in a different room than the one he had been in; Thomas was nowhere in sight, and many of the objects in the room were floating.

He frowned as he closed his eyes, listening for Thomas’s mental voice. He found it on the floor below him, and judging by the thoughts passing through Thomas’s head, everything in that room was floating as well.

Logan opened his eyes once more, the figurative pieces falling rapidly into place. _Objects floating, mind reading, change in location—telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation. That means that I am a telepath . . . and clearly a powerful one at that,_ he mentally added as Thomas removed the enhancement from before and the objects all remained floating.

Hyperaware of every item he was suspending with his powers, Logan carefully lowered every single one to its prior position before picturing himself in the room Thomas had brought him to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thomas let out a relieved breath as Logan appeared in front of him again.

“So you’re a telepath, then?” he asked, having watched all of the floating things return to their original places with an almost mathematical precision.

Logan merely nodded.

“How far does your range go?” Thomas questioned out of curiosity.

Logan’s mouth twisted as he thought. “I can hear the mental processes of an individual on the top floor of this building as well as many on the street below. Based off of this, my range is at least a hundred meters, though it could be farther when I am consciously attempting to read a person’s thoughts, or when you enhance it.”

Thomas let an impressed huff. “That’s pretty far.”

Logan agreed, “Indeed.” He appeared to contemplate for a few minutes before speaking again. “Is there any possibility that I could stay with one of the three of you? The government has not stopped trying to find me, they have merely gotten better at hiding it, and they will find my current place of residence soon if I do not move.”

Thomas nodded. “I’d be happy to take you in, or you can stay with V. I wouldn’t recommend staying with Jay, though; he still gets lawyers sometimes. If you talk with him, I’m sure the two of you can sort it out.”

“Excellent,” Logan said. “Where is he?”

“He’s the voice you heard on the top floor,” responded Thomas.

Logan smiled faintly in thanks and promptly disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter, we'll see Logan meeting Janus. Jay runs the "company" that owns this building. The problem is that the "company" doesn't do anything right now.
> 
> If you want, you can leave suggestions in the comments as to what they should do. Just keep in mind that while they might use their powers discreetly to make the job easier, it still has to be something that four college-aged people are capable of doing on their own.


	10. Author's Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few changes will be made

Sorry updates have been stopped for a time; AP exams smacked me in the face and I was not ready. I'll update more chapters soon.

This is the official announcement that what I've been thinking since the beginning is going to happen.

This _will_ be a Superhero AU. (Surprisingly, it's not Roman's fault).

It won't come into effect for a little while, but there is a definite plot up to that point now.

I'll do my best to get the next few chapters out soon.

Also, I have decided that since there have only been a few mentions of Janus's chosen name up to this point, I'm going to go ahead and change it. Thomas and Virgil will still call Janus 'Dee' on occasion (he's given them explicit permission to do so) but everyone else will use 'Janus' or 'Jay'.

Sorry for the wait; I'll update with an actual chapter hopefully before this time next week.

I am also still taking suggestions for what their company does; if necessary, I can keep it vague, but it would flow better and help me write the rest of the story more easily if I could get a concrete idea for that.


	11. Where'd You Come From?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus wasn't necessarily planning to have his day interrupted by a rambling eighteen-year-old.
> 
> Maybe they can work some things out anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Another brief mention of the Government(tm), but that should be it
> 
> Chapter Title for 9 and 10 from the "Cotton-Eyed Joe"

Janus stared in confusion at the young man about his own age that had appeared in the office and started rambling. He hadn’t walked in the door, he hadn’t swung in through a window, he had just . . . materialized there. 

It would be odd, but then again, Janus himself could read motivations, and Virgil could turn invisible—although this man’s appearance in his office had been different from Virgil’s gradual return from invisibility. It had been much more sudden.

Janus took a moment to view the man’s motivations for coming into the building. _An encounter with Thomas, a telepath’s skills . . . reaching back further: an entrance exam, a perfect score, and a hint of something not-quite-right—powers?_ Having pieced together what must have happened, Jay waited for a break in the man’s speech (something about housing?), but when none was forthcoming, he spoke anyway.

“I take it you are Logan?” he asked. The man looked caught off guard for a minute, but quickly recovered his composure and nodded. “Excellent; my name is Janus, and I’m the owner of this building.”

Logan perked up a bit at that, a relieved smile crossing his face. “That is good; the teleporting skill is rather new for me and I was unsure if I was in the correct building. I apologize for my extended speech; the only method I have discovered thus far to prevent myself from hearing the thoughts of others is talking.” 

Janus nodded in understanding before becoming confused again. “So what were you talking about? I’m afraid I couldn’t keep up with your speech while also checking to see what happened earlier. Which reminds me, I do need to apologize for glancing through your relevant memories; it just makes my job somewhat easier.”

“That doesn’t trouble me,” Logan said, “although I appreciate the apology nonetheless. I was asking to discuss the possibility of myself being housed with a member of your group, given that renting or buying a residence under my own name would result in discovery by a government agency.”

Janus squinted at Logan for a moment. “Is this about the rumor that a teenager got a perfect score on a college entrance exam around three years ago?” He watched Logan nod before continuing, “I can ask Virgil if he’d be okay with sharing his apartment. I would offer my house, but since I was sued seven years ago for emotional damages, I have to keep blackmailing lawyers when they show up at my door, so it’s probably not a good idea for you to stay with me.”

The relief was clear in Logan’s eyes. “Thank you,” he said.

It was silent in the office for a few moments before Logan spoke up. “You stated earlier that you own this building, yes?”

Janus blinked for a few moments, confused, but slowly nodded.

“So what, exactly, does your company do?” the young African-American man asked.

“Umm, well, you see—”

Logan cut in. “Nothing at the moment, evidently. If you were to allow me to, I could create a plan that would both remove suspicion from any _supernatural_ events that occur within these walls as well as raise funds for necessary expenses” here he turned his gaze on Janus “and operations.”

Janus raised one eyebrow, intrigued. “What do you have in mind?”

Logan brightened up a bit at the permission. “Well . . .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brief explanation of Jay's powers: he can essentially view whatever memory people are recalling at that moment, assuming the person is remembering how they ended up where they are. He doesn't have unlimited range of memories, nor can he view whatever he wants.


	12. One Year Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil wished he didn't have to take in all the strays.
> 
> It left him with people he wasn't sure if he could trust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: mentions of dissections, brief mention of eyes in jars
> 
> Chapter Title is a reference from another fandom; you can guess in the comments if you want!
> 
> Thank you to those of you who sent in suggestions for what the company Dee began could do, and a shoutout to Cocotoad who suggested the idea that I'll be using!

Virgil sat back from his desk, contemplating his roommates. Neither of them had lived with him for too long—Logan for only a year and Re for three months—but he was starting to get used to their presence. It had been a journey though. Especially when it came to Re, who could occasionally be unpredictable, unnerving, and a bit gross.

Logan rarely seemed bothered by this, so Virgil tried not to be either. Sometimes he didn’t quite succeed, namely this morning when Re had _dissected a rat on his dining room table without any sort of sanitation,_ or last week when he was fairly sure he saw a jar of human eyes in the fridge.

V was only 70% sure Re wasn’t a serial killer.

There were times where he had to revert to turning invisible to sneak around them, and he admitted to himself that disappearing the lights above wherever they were working wasn’t exactly the most subtle move, especially when he had to be careful. Re didn’t know about Logan’s and V’s powers yet.

Virgil remembered Logan’s arrival. Logan had teleported to just outside the front door and rang the doorbell, like any normal person. V had had his suspicions about Logan, but his plan to remain invisible had been foiled when it turned out that Logan could read his thoughts when he was invisible. Much of Virgil’s time since had been spent being worried that Logan was listening in to his thoughts.

But Re, on the other hand, had been brought to his apartment. By Logan. Virgil hadn’t been very happy when Logan explained the situation to him, but he wasn’t going to turn the poor person out onto the street. Besides, most of Re’s disruption had come in the form of the dissections and body parts which, although the frequency was worrying, it also made them easier to get used to.

Otherwise, Re had avoided being too disruptive, spending much of their time in their room or out and about, as if they were searching for something ~~or someone~~. From what Logan had told V, that wasn’t too far off, but both of them refused to share specifics.

The sound of a splash behind him pulled Virgil out of his thoughts. _That’s odd,_ he thought. _It’s raining outside, but that sounded like it was in our apartment._ He turned around and saw a cupful of water hovering in the air behind him, an indistinct person on the other side.

Virgil sighed. “Logan, I thought we talked about this.”

A laugh that was most definitely not Logan’s came from behind the water, which started to withdraw into the cup it was probably tossed out of. Soon, Renee was revealed on the other side, sporting her black wristband and a wide grin. “Oh goody, I’m not the only one!”

Virgil started at her for a moment before calling for Logan. “Hey, Lo! We need a ride to Jay’s!”

Logan appeared beside Renee. “So she’s finally decided to reveal herself, then?”

Something about the way Logan phrased that niggled at the back of Virgil’s brain, but he shook his head; he’d focus on that later. “Just take us to Janus,” he groaned, holding out a hand.

Logan grabbed Virgil’s extended hand and one of Renee’s, closed his eyes, and teleported them all to Janus.


	13. Set Fire to the Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman hasn't seen their sibling in at least two years.
> 
> They're not quite at the point of giving up, but something is about to change that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit later in the week than I was posting because this is the first time I've pulled out my computer in that time. I'm not a fan of writing on my phone, so no computer means a much lower chance of an update, and I'm sorry.
> 
> Please, PLEASE let me know if I misgendered Roman (or anyone else in the future); I don't write a lot of nonbinary characters and there's a pretty high chance I messed up somewhere.
> 
> Chapter Warnings: Fire. That's it, I think
> 
> Chapter Title this time is from Adele!

Roman rubbed their head, which was throbbing from the collision they just had from bumping into another person on the street. _Ouch, who was that? I should apologise._ They looked up, every intent in their mind to apologise, before realising that they had somehow summoned small tufts of fire, which were currently floating around them, burning bright despite the rain.

 _Roman, you idiot,_ they mentally berated themself, _this is how you get experimented on! You’re going to have to knock this person out like you did the last guy—_

Roman was torn out of their thoughts by a hand suddenly appearing in their field of vision. Hesitantly, they took the hand, being sure to smother their fire as they stood up. Slowly, they met the gaze of the young adult they had run into, who surprisingly was hardly fazed by the fire despite its sudden appearance and immunity to the falling rain.

“Hey, my name’s Thomas. I use he/him pronouns.” Thomas smiled warmly. “What about you?”

Roman stared at Thomas for several moments. “You’re not . . . confused? There was literal fire floating in the air not one minute ago, and you’re not even going to question it?”

Thomas just kind of laughed at that. “Trust me when I say, I’ve seen weirder. So, are you going to introduce yourself, or?”

Roman shook themself. “Right. My name’s Roman and I use they/them pronouns please?”

Thomas gave them a look. “You don’t have to act like that’s a question; it’s who you are, and we’re very accepting, don’t worry.”

Roman perked up at the mention of other people. “There are more of you? Could I meet them?”

Thomas smiled. “That’s the plan, yeah. It’s not a long walk from here, actually.”

Once Roman nodded their head, the two began walking through the city, Thomas leading the way.

~~~

During the walk to wherever Thomas was taking them, Roman learned about the other members of their “company”, including a nerd who started the group on the film production path that past year and an anxious emo that was the youngest of them so far yet had been the second to join.

The conversation took a bit of a turn, though, when Thomas and Roman walked through the door of a building with at least fifteen stories and Thomas relaxed (Roman hadn’t even noticed that he was tense) before beginning to describe the abilities the group possessed.

Roman listened attentively to a description of a telepath, a perception manipulator, and a memory viewer before watching Thomas demonstrate his own illusion powers. They occasionally burst in to ask questions, but mostly left the explaining to Thomas.

Before either of them realised, they had reached the top floor and were staring at a single door, which was painted yellow.

Thomas gave a swift knock before turning to Roman and gesturing at the door. “Whenever you’re ready,” he said with a smile.

Roman took a deep breath before reaching out and turning the doorknob.


End file.
